Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Secrets Revealed ( Chapter 3 )

Tomorrow

 

Disclaimer: Don't. Own.

 

Tifa stood at the bar in 7th Heaven, her eyes worried. Cid and Yuffie were helping to close up shop today, so Tifa tried to relax. Just then, Anne walked up beside her and took her arm.

 

“I'm done with the dishes,” she said quietly, making Tifa jump. “What else do you want me to do?” Tifa smiled down at the young girl beside her and tried to calm her jittering nerves.

 

“You don't need to do anything else, hon,” the black-haired woman answered. Anne paused, then nodded slowly and wandered over to sit by the rain-streaked windows. Tifa sighed, looking at the seventeen-year-old girl. This was Anne's routine every night after closing; she sat at the window and waited for Vincent to come back from wandering the city, as he had begun to do since Anne's revelation two months ago.

 

The first night had been the hardest on the young girl, since she was obviously emotionally attached to Vincent, following his every order as would a starved, beaten puppy. The teenager still reminded Tifa of an animal meeting those conditions, even though she was well-fed and loved by all. Tifa had found Anne in her room that first night, staring out the window and letting tears roll down her cheeks as she held a pillow tightly to her thin chest. Yuffie and Marlene had come rushing in at Tifa's cry of alarm when the martial Amazon found scars on the teenage girl's bare back, her low-back tank top hardly covering the signs of previous abuse. Vincent's sharp ears had apparently picked up everyone's cries of distress as Anne tried pitifully to cover her back, for he'd come crashing in through the door a few minutes later and quickly calmed down the redhead by quietly talking to her in an undertone shortly after ordering everyone out of the room. “She's still scared that Sephiroth will find her and take her back to-wherever,” Vincent had explained to Tifa and Yuffie later. “She needs protection, and we're her best bet since we defeated him last time. So-when I'm gone-I need you two to look after her and make sure she doesn't run away and hide or do something else that could equally be as drastic.” Tifa hadn't seen Vincent care so deeply for anyone since-well, since ever, and she wondered belatedly whether having a daughter and the responsibilities of being a father would bring him out of his shell.

 

The chimes rang as a visitor came through the door and broke Tifa out of her reverie. She looked up to see Vincent walking in, his hair and clothes dripping wet. Cid cursed as he took a towel to Vincent's slow, sodden path to the bar. Anne was staring at Vincent's back with a hidden look of admiration and hero worship buried deep in her blue-green eyes. Reeve came in shortly after, Cait Sith scurrying to stay dry under the Shinra head's long blue trench coat. “What's up, Vincent?” Tifa asked. She glanced at Reeve, then the clock behind the bar. “You're back early...”

 

Vincent shrugged, pulled a flask from underneath his cloak, and tipped back roughly half of the